The present disclosure pertains generally to electronic personal locating devices for determining the location or position of a pet or an object, and more particularly, a device for determining the location or position of a pet by utilizing the capabilities of two-way paging systems and global positioning satellite systems.
Tracking the location of an individual or an object or even an animal such as a domesticated animal or a pet that can move in unknown directions over a considerable range of territory has been a concern for a number of years. A number of systems have been proposed which employ existing wireless communication capabilities but which tend to be cumbersome, bulky, expensive or all of the above. With the advent of global positioning system (GPS) services, it has been possible to provide relatively inexpensive location systems for determining the location of a moving object. These have typically been utilized on trucks to provide location information for companies that have large fleets of trucks in use at any one particular time. The position of an individual truck is determined by coincident reception of signals from at least three GPS satellites by a satellite receiver, which position can then be stored or can be transmitted to a central receiving station via some sort of wireless link. Moreover, the wireless link can be a two-way communication link wherein the positioning information is only transmitted in response to receiving a request. However, the global positioning system (GPS) has some disadvantages in that it is relatively slow in acquiring the location data and it is strongly dependent upon the target object being in an open area where it is in a line of sight position relative to at least three GPS satellites. A further disadvantage, particularly in a small, portable unit, is that the GPS receiver that must be included in a locating device requires the use of substantial electrical energy during the period in which the location information is being acquired and developed from the GPS system. Further, a small portable object locator, in addition to minimizing the use of electrical power while being subject to less than ideal orientations to enable quick and efficient location by the GPS system, must also be very simple and easy to use.
The object locator described in the present disclosure and claimed herein comprises an apparatus and a method for locating or tracking an individual, an object or an animal having attached thereto an object locator operable to communicate with a base station location via a two-way paging system and further operable to acquire location information downloaded from a GPS system. A request for location information about the individual object or animal is transmitted from the base station over the paging system to a paging receiver integrated with the object locator. Following the receipt of a request for the location information of the individual object or animal from the base station over the paging system by a paging receiver integrated with the object locator, a signal enabling a GPS receiver in the object locator to acquire the location coordinates for the position of the individual object or animal from the GPS system is generated in the object locator. Thus enabled, the GPS receiver and the object locator receive the location coordinates from the GPS system and store the coordinates in a memory in the object locator. The GPS receiver in the object locator may then be disabled to conserve power. The location coordinates stored in the memory of the object locator, may then be loaded into a paging transmitter, also integrate with the object locator, and transmitted via the paging system to the base station. Upon receipt by the base station, the location information for the individual, the object or the animal may be output in some form that is readable or useful to a person at the base station or to a person who has access to the base station or to a person accessible to the base station.
In another aspect of the present disclosure, the operation of enabling the GPS receiver in the object locator may be conditioned upon the receipt of a control signal that is dependent upon some parameter such as the distance of the object being located from the base station or some other defined location. In further aspects, the enablement of the GPS receiver may be controlled by duty cycle controls which activate the GPS receiver at regular intervals to provide a monitoring function so that a series of attempts to establish the location of the individual object or animal may be attempted when the reception conditions for the GPS satellite link to the object locator are not ideal.
In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, the operation of enabling the GPS receiver may alternatively be conditioned upon receipt of a control signal received by or generated by the object locator as the object locator passes near or through an xe2x80x9celectronic fencexe2x80x9d or other energy-generating device.
In still another aspect of the present disclosure, the GPS receiver may be implemented to facilitate reception of differential GPS signals to enhance positional location accuracy.
In still another aspect of the present disclosure the object locator may communicate directly by communications satellite to the base station.